


How Crushing

by baguetteperson



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing, キミガシネ | Kimi ga Shine | Your Turn To Die (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Blood and Gore, Character Death, Dolls, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda, Resurrection, Spoilers, Swearing, but not a lot just some, for both drv3 and yttd, lots of angst tho, oh boy here we go - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:47:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baguetteperson/pseuds/baguetteperson
Summary: Kokichi gasped for air as he sat up, feeling a rush of warmth.His eyes were wide as he looked around. He was sitting in a chair in a small room, and across from him was a screen, the only thing in the room that provided a source of light. He felt like he was choking. Was something on his neck? Kokichi's hand shot up to his neck, and he could feel his familiar scarf- but beneath it, a collar.-Kokichi finds himself in Your Turn To Die after getting crushed.
Relationships: Burgerberg Q-taro & Satou Kai, Chidouin Sara & Ibushi Gin, Chidouin Sara & Shinogi Keiji, Chidouin Sara & Tazuna Joe, Egokoro Nao & Mishima Kazumi, Egokoro Nao & Yabusame Reko, Hiyori Sou | Tsukimi Shin & Kizuchi Kanna, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 55
Kudos: 213





	1. Chapter 1 - Part 1 (a)

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to this shitshow lmaoo
> 
> because we're all in quarantine i have nothing better to do with my life, i'll probably actually work on this fanfic
> 
> please bear with me here my writing sucks a lot more than usual right now since i havent written anything in fucking forever, also the characters are probably ooc so i apologize in advance
> 
> this idea came from an rp i did with a friend so if that friend ever sees this.. hiya

Kokichi stared at the metal slab over him, his breaths coming out in shallow gasps at this point. It was so cold, and so hard to breathe. He shivered, closing his eyes.  
  


This was it.  
  


He was going to die a brutal death. Getting crushed had always seemed so awful. He remembered looking at the hydraulic press multiple times and shuddering at the thought of being under that thing and getting crushed. But now that he was in the press, the supreme leader found himself not really caring.  
  


He just wanted to get his death over with.  
  


He heard the roaring of the hydraulic press as Kaito pressed the button. Then, he opened his eyes, and in his last moments, he smiled.  
  


Just like that, Kokichi felt an excruciating amount of pain, then nothing.  
  


..  
  


..  
  


..  
  


Kokichi gasped for air as he sat up straight, feeling a rush of warmth.  
  


His eyes were wide as he looked around. He was sitting in a chair in a small room, and across from him was a screen, the only thing in the room that provided a light source. He felt like he was choking. _Was something on his neck?_ Kokichi's hand shot up to his neck, and he could feel his familiar scarf- but beneath it, a collar.   
  


This.. didn't make sense. _Was this the afterlife or something?_ The leader pinched himself, wincing at the pain. Okay, he was apparently alive. That.. shouldn't be possible. Kokichi touched the spot where he was shot with Kaito's arrow and pressed down. No pain. _Okay... I'm in hell, aren't I?_ He though as he quickly checked his pockets, and felt that he had a few objects. The Electrobomb he died with, the Exisal controller, lockpicking tools. But that's all he had. No Monopad, pocket knife, or even dorm key. That was a little strange. Why did he have only a few of the items he died with? He moved to stand up, wanting to get out of the room. It felt too small.

  
"Please, stay seated, Kokichi."

  
Kokichi jumped at the sudden voice, and he turned his attention to the screen. On it was a green haired woman. He quickly took note of her appearance. He could only see from her chest up, but from what he can tell, her outfit was definitely strange. She had green eyes with large teardrops dripping down from them, and the leader noticed the dark circles under her eyes. Clearly, this woman didn't get enough sleep. 

  
Kokichi inhaled, and managed to keep his composure for now. "Why should I, weird lady? How do you even know my name, hmmm?" He decided to ask, as he stood up. His legs were shaking.

  
"..Please, sit down. I know you have many questions, so I will answer.. some of them shortly." The strange lady replied calmly. Her gaze made the leader pretty uncomfortable.

  
The purple haired male considered his options, then huffed and sat back down. Before he could ask anything, the weird woman spoke again. "Thank you. Normally, you and many others would have a First Trial, where you will be put in a deadly situation with a way to escape. However, your First Trial will not be deadly. This, as well as the items you have, are part of your perk."

  
Kokichi was silent as he listened to the woman. _So they purposely gave me the items. And a perk? Many others?_ His heart dropped. _If I'm_ _alive, then is everyone else alive too, and in the same situation?_

  
Then, the next words that the lady said made the small male's blood run cold.

  
"Your plan has failed." 

  
"...What?" He choked out, his eyes widening. _It failed?_

  
"Yes.. it failed. In the end, Shuichi had figured out the truth, and Kaito was forced to come out of the Exisal." The strange woman explained, and Kokichi felt dizzy. It failed. _Of course it failed._

  
The feeling of being choked returned, and Kokichi subconsciously reached up to touch the collar around his neck. He wished it was at least loose. It felt too tight. "Then.. what happened afterwards?" He managed to ask, keeping his gaze on the screen.

  
The woman was silent for a moment. "Kaito was executed, but it failed. He died from his sickness instead." For the first time, she smiled. "Maki, Shuichi, Himiko, Tsumugi.. they all went out to train in the courtyard, mourning him."

  
Then, her eyes turned red. And that wasn't normal. Kokichi gripped the arms of the chair tight enough that his knuckles turned white. _Was she even human? He really was in hell._ "Nobody cared about your death, Kokichi.. in fact, I am sure they were more than happy you died. If they saw you now, they would more than likely want to kill you."

  
"After all.. you're alone, Kokichi, and you always will be."

  
At this point, Kokichi's breathing was uneven. It really felt like the collar was choking him. It was confirmed. He actually died. _She's lying,_ he simply thought, but the woman didn't seem to be lying. For a split second, it felt like he was back at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, and Maki's hand was wrapped around his throat. This couldn't be happening. _How did this lady know? Was she part of the audience?_ No, this was just hell. The leader choked out a laugh, forcing a smile. He knew it would probably look too strained to be real. "Ah-hahaha... you think I don't know that? And you couldn’t even think of an original way to say that? How lazy.”

  
Just like that, the women's smile faded. Her eyes returned back to their normal green colour. That didn't calm Kokichi down at all, though. "Just as I thought. You're hurting. Well.." The lady smiled again. The purple haired male wished he could wipe that stupid smile off her face. "This is the end of your First Trial. Please proceed out the door in two minutes, or you will be crushed." On the wall to the small male's right, a door opened.

  
"Wait-" Kokichi started, but the screen had turned off. He cursed under his breath. He had so many questions. _Who was that lady? How did she know so much?_ _Who was the mastermind? Who survived? Kiibo wasn't mentioned, what happened to the_ robot? But, more importantly, _How the hell is he alive?_ The leader looked around, chewing on his thumbnail. He saw that he had no other option except for death, so he staggered to his feet, quickly making his way out of the room. He didn't want to die again. Especially from getting crushed. He shuddered at the thought of dying a second time as he walked through the hall, keeping his hand on the wall to his right.

  
It was.. pitch black. The leader had no light source on him, so there was no way he’d be able see where the hell he was going. It was disappointing, really. As he walked, his stomach suddenly plummeted and he let out a gasp, and-

  
He was falling.

  
Which was just great. It was like the floor had disappeared beneath him. This is how he was going to die, this time for real; breaking all his bones on concrete. After what seemed like forever but was probably actually only a few seconds, Kokichi landed on something.

  
It didn't take long for him to figure out it was a mattress. He let out a relieved sigh as he shakily got to his feet, looking around. Here, he could actually see somewhat better, since there was just a little bit of light coming from underneath a door down another hall. There didn’t seem to be anything else of importance though. 

  
Seeing nowhere else to go, Kokichi began walking down the hall, albeit reluctantly. He stopped in front of the door and he reached out to the doorknob, then paused. He could just barely see his hands shaking. He didn’t want to go, but.. He couldn’t go anywhere else. Unless he just wanted to sit there and starve. Taking a deep breath, the leader grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, being greeted by a large, bright room with many unfamiliar faces in it.


	2. Chapter 1 - Part 1 (b)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi meets the cast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> introduction time baby!! if you can't tell i literally just ripped off most of the dialogue from the wiki lmao. im sorry this chapter is pretty boring but its not exactly easy to make introductions interesting-
> 
> i overused some words i think whoops
> 
> next chapter will be investigations, it'll hopefully start to get interesting then

Kokichi stared blankly at the other people in the room. Some of them glanced over at him. The leader was a little hesitant as he stepped further into the room. Looking around, he saw other doors, some of them opened. They probably led to rooms similar to the one he just came from. He then went back to looking at the group of people and counted. There were 11 other people in the room, clearly varying in age. They all had collars on as well. There were a few people that caught his attention; the unconscious female with orange- _or is it brown?_ \- hair laying on the ground with a brown haired male keeping an eye on her, the frightened green haired girl wearing a bucket sitting on the ground, and the teal haired male wearing a beanie and scarf. He looked at the unconscious female first. She seemed to be a highschooler, and the guy watching her seemed to be around the same age as the girl. The leader noted this, thinking of a few possibilities. _Are they friends, maybe dating? Or maybe he’s just watching over an unconscious stranger for some reason?_

  
Kokichi then averted his gaze to the green haired girl sitting on the floor. She looked like a child, and she looked absolutely terrified. He remembered what the strange lady told him about the First Trial. It was meant to be a dangerous situation with a way out of it, right? Something horrible must’ve happened in hers. As the leader thought about this, he glanced over at the other child. He seemed younger, but didn’t look as terrified as the girl. 

  
Lastly, Kokichi looked over at the beanie guy. The other male looked a little timid. There didn’t seem to be anything remarkable about the beanie guy, however, but Kokichi noted how the scarf covered his neck entirely. The leader only wondered if the beanie guy had a collar or not, since he couldn’t see it or anything.

  
As Kokichi was examining the beanie guy, he felt like somebody was watching him. He looked around and made eye contact with a male with blonde hair, who had a hand on the back of his neck. He was clearly an adult, much taller than almost everyone else. He had a muscular physique. He also had dark circles under his eyes like the weird lady did in his First Trial room, so he clearly didn’t sleep well either. The leader could tell that the taller male was examining him, which made him slightly uncomfortable.

  
“Hey. You okay?” The blonde guy eventually spoke up and asked, approaching Kokichi. Almost immediately, the leader put on a smile and folded his hands behind his head. 

  
The smaller male sure as hell wasn’t okay. How could he be fine? He just died, somehow seemingly came back to life, and was thrown into a situation like this. Now he was just wondering how long it’ll take for a dead body to show up. “Yup! I’m fine.” He ended up lying. He could see the taller male raise an eyebrow. He must’ve been examining Kokichi for any signs of lies, but the leader was too good at lying. 

  
Kokichi suddenly heard someone let out a groan. This caught the attention of the blonde guy, who looked over at the source of the sound. It seemed like the unconscious female was waking up. The small male was a little relieved when the blonde guy turned away from him and focused on the girl.

  
The leader kept his attention on the orange haired girl and the blonde guy, though. He watched as the guy helped her up. Now that she was awake, the others seemed louder. He noted how everyone seemed to be reacting. A punk lady, a woman in overalls, and the terrified girl all seemed to be panicking. Everyone else seemed to be much more calm, even the strange kid. 

  
He watched as the now conscious female ran up to the gaudy guy that watched over her and punched him in the arm. “Joe!” She called, and the guy, apparently named Joe, winced at the pain. Almost immediately the girl looked like she regretted it. “Maybe that was too much force… Joe! So you’re okay!”

  
Joe looked over at the girl, his face blank. “..Who are you?” He simply asked, and Kokichi nearly scoffed. That was obviously an act, but the girl seemed to buy it.

  
“Wh..! What are you saying?! I’m Sara! Did you forget your own friend’s face?!” The girl, apparently named Sara, asked. This definitely confirmed that they were friends. _Best friends, maybe?_

  
The gaudy guy was quiet for a moment, his face still blank, before he smiled and asked, “..Could you be the Sara who’s a terrible swimmer?”

  
Sara’s face blanked for a second, then she looked mildly annoyed. “J..Joe! This is not the time for jokes!” She replied, putting her hands on her hips. 

  
“My bad, my bad!” Joe chuckled, his smile widening a little. Kokichi saw the blonde guy approach the two, who had obviously been listening to them as well.

  
“Hm.. Joe and Sara, eh.. You two are friends?” The blonde guy asked, catching them off guard. _Did they really not notice him approaching?_ Kokichi wondered.

  
Sara looked up at the blonde guy, furrowing her eyebrows a little. “Eh..? Y...Yes, we are..” She confirmed with a nod.

  
The taller male smiled, happy with the answer. “Thanks for that. Joe here wasn’t speaking up, see… Must’ve been wary of something… Wouldn’t even tell me his name.” Kokichi looked over at Joe, who was silent. His expression was blank again, and he straight up looked like he didn’t trust the blonde guy. Which was understandable. The blonde guy then raised his voice, now speaking to everyone. “Alright, everybody, listen up. I bet we’re all thinking the same thing. What is this place? Why was I brought here? And about all you know is who you are.”

  
“What are you getting at, I wonder..?” A man in a suit wondered out loud.  
  


“How about we give introductions? Should ease the suspicion a little, at least.” The blonde guy then suggested. 

  
“Introductions, you say..?” A man wearing an apron questioned. _What’s up with all the stuff he’s holding?_ Kokichi wondered, before looking over at the blonde guy.

  
“Not a whole lot else we can do.” The blonde guy said, before looking over at Sara. “Am I right, Sara?” That was.. A little surprising. _Does this guy somehow trust Sara already? There’s no way he did._

  
Sara herself looked pretty surprised at the blonde guy asking her. “Huh..? You’re asking me..?” She mumbled. Then she paused, before adding, “True… I want to confirm our situation.”

  
The blonde guy grinned, satisfied with the answer. “See.. the calm ones know what to say.” He replied. “Okay, now, once you’re ready, it’s introduction time. Just tell me when, Sara.”

  
Sara nodded, and Kokichi resisted the urge to sigh. _Why should they get confirmation from this highschooler to introduce themselves?_ He didn’t ask though, and just decided to stay silent. He knew that this situation was obviously going to be dangerous, like the killing game. Last time he died, partially because nobody trusted him. Maybe.. This time, he had to try and gain trust.

  
He watched as Sara confirmed with the blonde guy that she was ready, so he cleared his throat and began speaking again. “So then, I think we should all get to know each other a li’l more.”

  
“Meow, so? Mom tells me not to give personal info to stranger guys I don’t know, woof!” The strange child exclaimed, clutching his cat pillow close to his chest. 

  
“Stupendous! A level-headed child who does as his parents teach him!” The man in the suit said with a grin. “Yet, this is indeed an emergency… Hmm. Then we must prove that we adults are not suspicious characters… Mwahaha…” He chuckled, and Kokichi couldn’t help but think that the guy was creepy.

  
The strange kid narrowed his eyes at the man in the suit. “Waugh.. Super suspicious, woof.” He simply commented. Clearly, the kid thought the creepy guy was, well, creepy.

  
“Nothing for it. Well, where should we start?” The man in the apron spoke up and questioned.

  
“You can keep it simple. Name and occupation.. Just take turns saying ‘em.” The blonde guy instructed, grinning when Sara agreed with a nod. “That’s the ticket.” Joe quietly stared at the taller male, clearly not trusting him. The blonde guy looked down at the gaudy male, seemingly not minding the other male’s obvious distrust. He kept grinning as he then said, “Got it. The wary ones can be for later. Raise your hand if you don’t mind blabbin’.”

  
And, just like that, the introductions started. As expected, some of the adults began, with the man in the suit speaking up. “Hello, I am Kazumi Mishima. I teach at a certain high school.. Mwahaha..” Kokichi raised his eyebrow. _That guy’s a highschool teacher?_ He certainly didn’t seem like one, but Mishima wasn’t lying.

  
“Eh..? You’re a teacher, woof? The world’s going to the dogs, meow.” The strange kid commented, to which Mishima looked a little sad at that response.

  
“..Name’s Reko Yabusame. I’m a singer-songwriter.” The punk lady spoke up and introduced herself next, deciding to move on. Kokichi thought he'd heard of the name before, probably in a newspaper or something. _Or maybe from DICE._ Thinking about his friends.. No, family, honestly hurt. 

  
“Oh! I think I’ve seen you in magazines!” Joe exclaimed, and Kokichi looked over at him to see his face light up. “You’re THE Reko Yabusame?!” The highschooler asked excitedly, grinning.

  
Reko stared blankly at Joe for a moment. “...Dude. Is this the time?” She simply asked in response.

  
Joe winced at the response, looking sheepish. “Sorry..” He apologized.

  
“...I am Kai Satou. I’m a rather unremarkable homemaker.” The man in the apron decided to introduce himself calmly. Kokichi narrowed his eyes at Kai. That was.. basically a half truth. Clearly, Kai wasn’t just a homemaker, but the leader kept that to himself for now.

  
“What’s with the stuff behind you..?” The beanie guy suddenly spoke up, looking a little curious. 

  
The question seemed to surprise Kai, and his eyebrows raised a little. “It’s a frying pan... And a ladle… and a spatula.” He simply replied. Kokichi thought about how specifically the frying pan could be used as a good weapon.

  
Kai’s response made the beanie guy’s expression fall. “I… I didn’t mean it like that…”

  
The tallest person there, a buff, red-haired male, decided to take the chance to introduce himself. “I’m Q-taro Burgerburg! I’m a baseball player! Second-string, though!” Kokichi couldn’t help but snicker at the name, a little amused. He saw the blonde guy glance at him from the corner of his eye, obviously hearing him.

  
There was a small gasp, and Kokichi looked at the source of the sound. “Woaaaaah.. That’s why you’re so big!” A pink haired lady in overalls exclaimed, her eyes widening a little.

  
“193 centimeters! And strong to boot, y’hear!” Q-taro replied with a grin and a thumbs up that reminded Kokichi of Kaito. 

  
After that, there was a pause. It didn’t seem like anybody else wanted to talk. Kokichi looked over at the blonde guy, and just as the taller male was about to speak, the leader cut him off with, “I’ll go next, then!” He smiled brightly, putting his hands behind his head as he very briefly thought about what to say. Nobody mentioned an Ultimate talent, so.. “I’m Kokichi Ouma! I’m just a high school student.”

  
“Meow? You don’t look like you’re _just_ a high school student, woof.” The strange child spoke up and said.

  
Kokichi snickered. “Well, you’re right! I’m actually a supreme leader of evil.” He then claimed, outstretching his arms as his smile widened.

  
“A supreme leader?” The beanie guy asked dubiously.

  
“Yep! A supreme leader! I just lead an organization with over 10,000 members.” The leader then replied. He paused for a moment, watching as everyone looked skeptical at that claim. Well, a couple people seemed like they believed him. Kokichi giggled. “Nishishi! I’m just kidding. Being a supreme leader sounds cool and all.. But I’m really just a highschool student.”

  
It went quiet for a few seconds afterwards. “..Seems like no one else wants to talk,” The blonde guy then spoke up. He looked over at Sara and asked, “Well then, Sara, how about you try asking things to people you wanna hear from?”

  
“Since nobody else wants to speak, you introduce yourself next, then!” Kokichi demanded before Sara could properly form a response. The blonde guy averted his gaze to the smaller male with a grin.

  
“Ah, right, I haven’t introduced myself yet, huh? My name’s Keiji Shinogi. Workin’ as a policeman.” Keiji introduced himself, and Kokichi’s expression fell a little. _Another liar, huh?_ He thought. Keiji wasn’t a policeman. _Maybe he used to be a cop or something._ But the leader stayed quiet about that as well.

  
“Huh?! Police?!” Joe asked, his eyes widening. 

  
Keiji’s grin widened a little at the response. “You got it. So don’t trouble your friendly neighbourhood policeman.” He replied, then paused for a moment. “...Well, not that I’m really that sort of cop.”

  
“T...Then, you should have mentioned that sooner!” Joe exclaimed, narrowing his eyes at the supposed cop.

  
Keiji kept grinning. “I got abducted in the middle of an investigation. It was tough to find a chance to spill it.” He explained.

  
Joe frowned a little. “Shouldn’t have been wary… dammit..” He muttered to himself.

  
Kokichi could feel the corners of his lips turn upwards into a grin, which proceeded to stretch ear to ear. His hair cast a slight shade over his eyes. These combined gave him a pretty sinister look. “Corrupt cops still exist, y’know.” He simply stated, and saw Joe shudder, looking creeped out at the face. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw multiple others look at least a little uncomfortable from his creepy grin. Keiji’s grin faded for a moment.

  
“Hey, now, don’t say that about you friendly neighbourhood policeman.” Keiji then replied, his smile returning. The blonde haired male didn’t seem to be bothered by Kokichi’s grin. The leader simply snickered, his grin returning to a much more normal looking one, thinking about how the supposed cop reminded him of Rantaro. Even the whole ‘friendly neighbourhood policeman’ thing reminded Kokichi of Rantaro’s ‘I’m not a suspicious guy’ thing. He couldn’t help but wonder how long it would take before Keiji’s dead body showed up.

  
"You were investigating alone?” Sara then spoke up and questioned Keiji, grabbing the attention of the taller male.

  
“I was riding with my partn… well, a coworker. But I ended up alone for just a second, got conked out, and here we are.” Keiji then explained. Another lie.

  
“Is your coworker not here?” The highschooler then asked, looking curious.

  
“Sure isn’t.” Keiji lied. _He really likes lying, huh? Maybe to gain trust?_ Kokichi simply thought. _His coworker probably died, though._

  
The conversation seemed to encourage Joe to speak up. “I’m Joe Tazuna. Me and Sara are high school classmates.” He introduced himself with a smile, before continuing. “Sara was being harassed by a stalker, so I went home with her that day. Then there was an incident, so I called the police, but.. I heard Sara screaming, so I ran upstairs. And there stood that damn stalker!”

  
That definitely got Kokichi’s attention. _What sorta incident happened? And who’s the stalker? Maybe somebody here?_ He wondered. “That’s the first I’ve heard of that!” Sara exclaimed, looked shocked. 

  
Joe chuckled. “Didn’t have a chance to mention it.” He simply replied. Then he continued explaining some more. “So, I worked up all my courage to punch the guy. ‘Course, I’m awful at fighting, so.. Since I don’t remember winning, I’m guessing I lost. That’s why.. I know the stalker is the culprit in this case.”

  
“...Interesting. Go on.” Keiji then said, looking interested.

  
“Sorry, but that’s all I got. Since I fainted…” Joe replied, his expression settling into a serious one. “Then again… This isn’t a stunt just one jerk stalker could pull by himself. It’s an organized crime. Right, mister cop?” He asked the taller male. Kokichi was well aware of that very likely being the case from the beginning, but clearly the brown haired male was a little smarter than he thought.

  
Keiji seemed to think about it for a moment. “...Could be.”

  
Joe stayed silent for a couple seconds. “...Wonder if there’s one among us… A collaborator with the culprit… playing the victim to blend in..!” He then said. _Yeah, this guy is clearly at least somewhat smart._ Kokichi thought after hearing that.

  
Sara looked a little caught off guard by that, but then Keiji suddenly burst into laughter. Joe looked surprised by the taller male suddenly laughing. “What is it?! You wanna laugh?! You can’t say there isn’t..”

  
Keiji cut Joe off before the other male could finish his sentence. “You sure are funny! Hahaha!” He laughed, his smile widening just a little.

  
“I hate this guy..!” Joe scowled as the not-cop laughed.

  
Sara let out a small sigh, before she decided to speak to the others. She averted her attention to the green haired girl sitting on the ground, trembling. Kokichi watched as she managed to calm the frightened girl down a little. The highschooler seemed to be good with children. Afterwards, she turned to Q-taro. “Q-taro.. What kind of dialect is that?” She asked the baseball player, grabbing his attention.

  
“No kiddin’, what is it indeed? Grew up in a strange orphanage, so prolly it’s a mix of a whole bunch. But it was in Japan, so that’s my nationality! …Parents left when I was li’l, though, and I dunno where I was born.” Q-taro explained in response. Kokichi definitely noted that. That guy was an orphan apparently, so.. The leader briefly wondered if he knew Maki. “Ain’t nothin’ can’t be fixed if you talk it out!”

  
The beanie guy spoke up again. “Incidentally, I believe baseball has positions..?” 

  
“I’mma pitcher. Confident in my batting too, an’ I was lucky enough to go to Central League.” Q-taro replied with a grin.

  
“I don’t really follow, but.. Does that mean you’re good at both throwing the ball and hitting it with the bat?” The beanie guy then asked in response.

  
“W-Well.. Yeah, tha’s right.” Q-taro confirmed a little awkwardly. Just from the conversation, Kokichi could tell that the baseball player is pretty proud of his strength. _Maybe it’d be easy to manipulate him._ “I was all happy after a long-in-coming comeback game, so I went drinkin’, then I don’t remember a thing. Then when I woke up, I got a collar on in this place. Like I’m a dog or somethin’! Such a bummer! Can’t believe I can’t get this thing off!” Q-taro then explained, looking mildly annoyed.

  
Sara then turned to Reko, wanting to hear more from the singer. “Reko Yabusame. I’m a singer-songwriter.” She repeated, just in case somebody forgot already. “ Just like the gaudy guy said, my band’s made enough of a name to get into magazines.”

  
“Don’t call me the ‘gaudy guy’...” Joe muttered, obviously disliking that.

  
"We’d finally made it to the starting line. The whole future stretched ahead of us…” Reko started speaking.

  
“Um… is that makeup… for performances?” The woman in overalls suddenly spoke up and asked, looking a little curious.

  
“Like hell! The fans’d weep if I went on stage looking this plain.” Reko replied. Kokichi kind of wanted to see the singer with heavier makeup on now. “I finished a new track, so I had plans to meet with my bandmates.. And then this shit happens!!” She added, looking pretty pissed off.

  
Sara thought for a moment before asking, “You can’t contact them?”

  
Reko let out a small huff. “...Naturally, all my stuff’s gone. My precious bongos, my phone, my wig… It’s all gone!” Kokichi took note of that. He was probably the only one that had some of his items still on him. Well, other than Kai. Unless the homemaker found the stuff he was holding. “Goddamn kidnapper! If you threw out my stuff, I’m gonna beat your ass so hard…!” She stated, looking even more angry.

  
“I-Is now the time to worry about belongings…?” The girl in overalls asked sheepishly.

  
“Some of that stuff’s as important as my life!” Reko claimed in response.

  
The girl in overalls seemed to shrink back. “I-I’m sorry!” She was quick to apologize.

  
Sara decided to move on, looking over at Kai, who took that as his cue to speak. “I am Kai Satou. A rather unremarkable homemaker.” He reintroduced himself, then thought for a moment. “Hm.. my best meal is eggs benedict.”

  
“A chef, eh?” Q-taro spoke up, raising an eyebrow.

  
“No, not a chef, but a homemaker. Akin to a house-husband.” Kai corrected. Already, the black haired male reminded Kokichi of both Kirumi and Korekiyo. He could only hope that the other male didn’t secretly run a country or loved his sister a little too much.

  
“Same difference if you both make tasty food.” Q-taro simply replied.

  
Kai didn’t seem too bothered by that. “I suppose so..”

  
Kokichi looked over at Sara, noticing how she bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows. “Do you know me?” She eventually asked Kai. The homemaker looked over at the highschooler, staying silent, looking a little surprised. Then he looked confused. Sara let out a small sigh. “Ah, it’s fine… If you don’t remember, it must just be me…”

  
Kai kept quiet for a moment longer, before asking, “..Miss Sara..?”

  
“You do know me?!” Sara asked, her eyes widening with shock.

  
“I simply heard your name earlier.” Kai simply claimed, but Kokichi just knew that wasn’t it. _This guy was probably the stalker or something, huh? He certainly looks like one._

  
However, Sara clearly believed him, and her expression fell. “So it’s our first meeting after all..”

  
"...Perhaps.. I should discard my cookware.” Kai then said, thinking about it.

  
“Hmmm.. but it could be useful for something.” Sara stated in response.

  
Kai’s expression didn’t really change as he then replied, “At the least, I bet I could make eggs benedict.”

  
Afterwards, Sara then said, “I guess I haven’t properly introduced myself yet, so..” She smiled a little as she continued. “I’m Sara Chidouin. I’m a high school student.” She introduced herself, keeping her introduction short and simple. She didn’t explain what happened before getting kidnapped or anything, since Joe already explained what happened since they were together.

  
Then, the highschooler turned to look at Kokichi. “So, Kokichi. What are your memories before you arrived?”

  
Kokichi was expecting this sort of question, honestly. But he hadn’t really prepared for it. He simply smiled though. “Oh, nothing interesting, really. I was just going back home after visiting a friend, and suddenly I got knocked unconscious.” He lied. He had to, because literally nobody would believe him if he said he got crushed anyways.

  
“You didn’t see anyone?” Sara then asked in response.

  
“Nope! Nobody. A shame, honestly. I would’ve loved to catch even a glimpse of my kidnapper’s face.” Kokichi replied, putting his hands behind his head. The orange haired girl looked a little disappointed by that, clearly believing his lie.

  
Sara then turned to Mishima, who grinned. “I am Kazumi Mishima. I teach at a certain highschool.. Mwahaha…” The teacher reintroduced himself as well. “Incidentally, I teach Japanese and art.. Mwaha..”

  
"A school teacher, huh? I can’t imagine it.” Keiji spoke up and stated.

  
“Indeed, I hear that often..” Mishima simply claimed.

  
"I’ve got no right to say it, but you’re suspicious from every angle.” The supposed cop then said bluntly.

  
Suddenly, the woman in overalls spoke up. “You truly have no right to say that! Apologize to the professor, please!” Kokichi looked over at the pink haired female. _She’s probably Mishima’s student or something._

  
“Whoa now. What’s this, little miss?” Keiji simply asked, a little surprised to hear the woman in overalls speak.  
  


“Pardon… You see, she is a former student of mine. Please forgive her…” Mishima confirmed.

  
“He’s a really good teacher! Please don’t judge a book by its cover!” The woman in overalls defended the teacher.  
  


Mishima frowned. “I suppose my appearance is shady after all… How shocking.”  
  


“Well, don’t have much else to judge on. Dunno much about you either, little miss.” Keiji stated.  
  


The girl in overalls seemed to be getting more desperate. “I’ll introduce myself…! There’s nothing guilty about us!”  
  


“…Well, excuse me.” Keiji simply replied.  
  


“It’s time to cool down, yes…” Mishima then said, as Sara seemed to think.  
  


“Well... Professor Mishima, do you have any ideas about this incident?” Sara decided to ask the teacher.  
  


“Hmmm…” Mishima began to think. “I don’t… recall earning anyone’s ire…” It seemed like he was telling the truth.  
  


“I see.” Sara simply replied.  
  


“Of course, surely there have been times I’ve been disliked by students… but.” The teacher paused for a moment. “…No, no student would cause such an incident. So I’d like to believe… For after all, as you can see, I even have students who come to visit me after graduation… Mwahaha.” _So Mishima was well liked?_ Kokichi noted that. “I believe we made it through the First Trial thanks to our combined knowledge, as well.” That definitely piqued the leader’s interest. He wasn’t aware that some people did their First Trials together.  
  


Kokichi watched as Sara looked over to Mishima’s student, who decided to start speaking. “I-I’m a former student of Professor Mishima’s! Currently at an art college! My name is Nao Egokoro! It’s thanks to Professor Mishima that I attend an art college now!” Nao was seemingly getting desperate. “The professor’s a good person! Please believe me! Saraaaa!” She defended the teacher once again.  
  


“I-I’m not especially doubting it…” Sara simply replied, a little taken aback by Nao getting increasingly desperate.  
  


“Yep, just Mr. Policeman here who suspected him.” Keiji spoke up and confirmed.  
  


“Then please, repent!” The artist demanded.  
  


Keiji chuckled. “Sure. Professor Mishima’s not suspicious.” He simply replied.  
  


Nao seemed pretty relieved by the response, and calmed down. “S… So you understand...! In that case, my work here is done…”  
  


Sara thought for just a second, looking at Nao before asking, “What happened in your First Trial?”  
  


“It was a game where we were tied to beds… and we had to escape with just one key… I… Professor Mishima instructed me to use the sandpaper on the key… then I unlocked his restraints.” That was definitely different from Kokichi’s First Trial. He assumed that if they failed to escape, they would die, and everyone else was in dangerous situations like that as well, just like the green-haired woman told him in his First Trial. “Honestly… it was thanks to him I was able to stay calm… Sara… Are you okay? You look angry…”  
  


Kokichi looked over at Sara, who looked angry like Nao had pointed out. She managed to settle her expression into a much more calm one. “Ah… I’m fine…” She lied in response.  
  


“I don’t like Keiji, but I kind of like you, Sara.” Nao suddenly told her.  
  


Sara looked a little surprised by that. “Eh…?”  
  


“Please take good care of your friend...!” Nao pleaded, to which the highschooler simply let out a sigh in response.  
  


There was a pause. "Ah… I should introduce myself too soon, huh." The beanie spoke up and said, looking a little reluctant to do so.  
  


The strange child let out a huff before speaking up as well. "Fine, I can read the room, woof! It’s, you know, the mature response, meow!"  
  


"Well then, my name’s Sou Hiyori. Err… well. Just a job-hopper. Ahaha…" Sou said with a nervous chuckle. Kokichi narrowed his eyes at the other male. He already knew that... 'Sou' was lying about his name. Apparently there were quite a few liars here.  
  


"So, living hand-to-mouth, meow?" The strange child simply asked.  
  


Sou smiled a little sheepishly. "H…Hey… don’t put it like that… It’s not a ton, but I’ve got savings."  
  


“Why wouldn’t you introduce yourself at first?” Sara asked, looking curious.  
  


“Naturally, I was wary like Joe was…” Sou claimed in response. “Plus, saying I’m a job-hopper… is a little embarrassing. Ahaha…” He chuckled again. Kokichi could tell that he was telling the truth this time, but suspected that there was some other reason. _Trying to think of a fake name or something?  
  
_

“Just make up some lie, meow! You’re honest to a fault, woof!” The strange child exclaimed.  
  


Sou looked down at the strange child. “H… Hey now, I dunno about that… You can’t trust people like that, right?” The leader nearly scoffed at that. The job-hopper then glanced at Sara and noticed her expression, letting out another chuckle. “Ahaha… C-Come on now… Don’t look at me so pitifully…” He said, before adding, “Sara, you seem steadfast and strong. I’m jealous.” Kokichi continued to stay silent. Somehow, even though Sou was, in fact, jealous, the leader believed that he disliked Sara.   
  


The orange haired girl thought for a moment. “Actually, I wanted to ask something…What were your memories before arriving?”  
  


“Gosh… feels like you’re asking in such a ‘first things first’ way.” Sou replied with a smile. “I was on the way to my usual part-time job at a convenience store. It’s a bad part of town… and I was aware of how dangerous it could be at night… But the night shift wages are good… so.” He paused for a moment, his smile fading. “Suddenly, someone attacked me. I can’t remember what else happened then.” He paused again, then looked apologetic as he added, “Uh, sorry.. I can’t remember anything much.” Kokichi could tell he was telling the truth again, but got the feeling that the job-hopper knew more than he let on. _Why are you lying about your name..?  
  
_

“…Well, neither can we.” Sara replied after a moment.  
  


Sou was silent for a moment, looking away. “...Right.”  
  


“Don't sweat it!” Joe exclaimed.  
  


“Once you get home, go find a job, meow!” The strange child added.  
  


“Ugh… Job hunting… Steady work…” Sou muttered to himself. Already, Kokichi just didn’t like that guy.

  
Sara looked over at the strange child, who decided to introduce himself now. “My name is Gin Ibushi, woof! I’m a 6th grader, meow!” Hearing that made Kokichi’s heart sink. _He’s so young...  
  
_

“Great introduction, kiddo.” Keiji simply replied with a smile.  
  


“Don’t call me a kid! I just introduced myself ‘cause you guys don’t seem like anything special, woof!” Gin exclaimed, but Kokichi knew that wasn’t the case.  
  


“Do you remember anything about why you were brought to this place?” Joe decided to ask, looking curious.  
  


“Woof… nope.” Gin simply stated, before beginning to explain. “Mom was late coming home, so I stayed up to wait… And I heard the intercom, so I thought she was back and opened the door, meow. A different grown-up was standing there, meow! …Don’t remember anything else, woof.”  
  


“I see…” Sara murmured.  
  


“Gin…” Joe started, but was cut off by Gin.  
  


“Don’t give me those looks, woof! I’m a strong boy, meow!” The sixth grader replied. Kokichi could tell that Gin was just acting tough, though. He was definitely scared.  
  


Sara was quiet for a moment. “...You’re a tough kid.”  
  


“Of course, meow! Don’t think I’m just a regular kid, woof! I’ll definitely make that kidnapper pay, meow!” Gin claimed in response.  
  


“Hm… You might just be right, Gin.” Sara smiled softly at him. “We’ll have them make pay for what they did.” The highschooler proceeded to give Gin a pat on the head.  
  


“Mya…” Gin was quiet for a moment, seeming a little relaxed. “…Woof! You seem nice, big sis Sara! I’m okay trusting you, meow!” He exclaimed.   
  


“B…Big sis…?!” Sara looked surprised by this.  
  


“…Huh? It’s not big bro, is it, woof? Maybe I got it all wrong, meow…” Gin replied, looking a little confused.  
  


“That’s not the problem!” Sara said in response, before letting out a sigh. She then turned to face the frightened girl, who was the last person that hadn’t introduced themself yet. “Are you okay…? If you’ve calmed down, could you talk to me?”  
  


“…Um…” The girl hesitated, before speaking. “I’ll say… I’m Kanna Kizuchi…”  
  


Sara gave her a soft smile. “Kanna, could you tell me more about yourself?”   
  


“…Okay…” Kanna started, hugging herself. She seemed to calm down. “…Uh… I’m… in middle school… And… erm, um…”  
  


“It’s okay, you don’t need to rush.” Sara simply stated.  
  


“…I was coming home… with my big sister… We were eating ice cream… We were just walking along and talking… about what to have for dinner…” Kanna paused, her expression falling. “…Suddenly... some scary people came out from a black car parked on the road…”  
  


“I see… that must have been frightening.” Sara commented. _Yeah, no shit,_ Kokichi thought after Sara’s response. He was curious though. _Where’s Kanna’s sister?_ Then the leader’s stomach dropped. _She’s dead, isn’t she?  
  
_

“Yes…” Kanna agreed with a small nod, her expression settling back into a more calm one.  
  


Sara hesitated for a moment, before asking, “…Could you tell me about what happened after you arrived here?”  
  


“…Here? After… I came here…” Kanna looked frightened again. “…My… sister. …My sister…” She paused, hugging herself tighter. Kokichi had a horrible feeling. “…Ahhhhh…” Suddenly, Kanna let out a scream, bursting into tears. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!! She’s dead! My sister! Why?! How?! It’s my fault! My sister!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!” The green haired girl let out another scream, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kokichi's so quiet this chapter,, but can you blame him? (this is just an excuse for him being pretty OOC, fuck)
> 
> RIP Kugie btw, lowkey wished i could've kept her alive but Kokichi didn't do anything to change her fate because he couldn't


	3. Chapter 1 - Part 1 (c)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Investigation begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took forever to put out whoops. hopefully next chapter wont take as long

After Kanna had passed out, the others were quick to make sure she was fine. Sara was watching over her currently while a few other people were quietly talking amongst themselves. While this was all happening, Kokichi kept an eye on some people. Specifically, Sou, Keiji and Kai, who all seemed to be pretty calm.  
  


“Sara. How’s Kanna looking…?” Reko asked as she approached Kanna and Sara, grabbing Kokichi’s attention.  
  


Sara frowned a little. “It looks like she’s passed out…”  
  


“Dammit, this is some messed up shit! She DIED…?!” Reko looked pissed off as she spoke. “What the hell’d this poor girl do, huh?! Does this culprit even got a heart?!”  
  


“Seems like… this isn’t some joke or a prank.” Sou spoke up with a more serious expression.  
  


“I… I don’t like this…” Nao started, looking pale. “This is too awful… just too…”  
  


“Hey now, everybody, don’t lose your cool. You’ve got your friendly policeman here.” Keiji then spoke up, cutting Nao off before she could continue.  
  


“Hey, Keiji! You’re the reliable one here! What should we do?!” Joe was quick to ask Keiji, turning to the not-cop.  
  


“…You’ve sure changed your tune.” Keiji simply commented, “Well, first things first. Why don’t we confirm what each of us has found in this place?” He then suggested.  
  


“Oooh, good idea, Mr. Policeman!” Kokichi spoke up and exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. “Hey, does anyone have anything important?” He asked, looking around.  
  


“I do! See, I picked up this thing.” Q-taro spoke up, showing everyone a large yellow box with three keyholes.  
  


“It’s a huge box, meow!” Gin commented.  
  


“Bet you could fit a whole watermelon in there...” Nao then added.  
  


“Was this… from the First Trial?” Sou asked Q-taro.  
  


The baseball player nodded. “Yep. Though I mean, bringin’ this box was the point of the First Trial…”  _ He needed to bring it? Was his First Trial even dangerous..? _ Kokichi wondered.  
  


Hearing that, Joe looked surprised. “Say what?! Did some people have different First Trials?”   
  


“Not important right now!” Kokichi simply stated, “We gotta open the box.”  
  


“It ain’t gonna. It’s got these keyholes, see?” Q-taro replied, showing the leader the box.  
  


Keiji turned to Sara. “Sara, do you have any ideas?” He questioned, catching her off guard.  
  


Before the highschooler could muster up a response, Kokichi let out a huff. “You seriously hafta ask her? C’mon, it’s obvious.” He said, looking mildly annoyed, before turning to Nao. “Nao, you mentioned getting a key in your First Trial, riiiight? You should try it out!”   
  


The artist looked a little surprised at suddenly being spoken to, but her eyes lit up at the suggestion. “Oh, yeah, maybe it’ll work!” She replied as she took out the key. Q-taro placed the box down, and Nao stuck the key into one of the keyholes. A perfect fit.  
  


“Oh, then our key would probably work too!” Sara replied as Joe nodded and took out the key, sticking it in another keyhole. The orange haired turned to Kanna’s unconscious form and found her key, then used it on the box.  
  


The other two keys were perfect fits as well, even though Kanna’s wasn’t whittled down. Kokichi took note of this.  _ Maybe someone was meant to die or something?  _ He thought to himself as Keiji went over to the box. “Alright, this might be dangerous, so leave it to the policeman.” He said, then before anyone could protest, he opened it up. “And it’s open.”  
  


“What’s inside?” Sara asked curiously as she approached the not-cop. Kokichi did as well, wanting to see the contents of the box.  
  


The leader peeked over Keiji’s shoulder. “Ahh… you might not want to look.” The blonde male said, but it was too late. Kokichi had seen it.   
  


It was a human head.  
  


It... didn’t really surprise the leader, honestly. He didn’t really react. However, it seemed like Kokichi wasn’t the only to see the severed head inside, since multiple people let out shouts of horror. But it didn’t take very long for the leader to realize it was just a doll head. “Pfft, it’s just a doll,” He said as he reached down and picked it up by the hair with a smile, visibly disturbing some of the others as it hung from his grasp. “See? No blood.”  
  


“Huh?!” Joe’s eyes widened by that, but he seemed relieved, as well as the others.  
  


Keiji raised an eyebrow at that. “Huh. You’re right.” He simply stated before looking back at the box. “Hmm..? A letter?” The blonde male picked up the letter inside and read it outloud, while Kokichi put the doll head back in the box. “ _ Find my body. Bring me back. For I don't have arms or legs.”  _ He hummed as he thought. “Find her body..?”  
  


“Where could the body be?” Kai spoke up and asked.  
  


“Do we even need to find it, meow? This could be a trap, woof!” Gin pointed out, against the idea of looking for the body.  
  


“That’s true. I don’t think there’s any need to do what the letter says…” Sou spoke up thinking about it. “Think it’s about time we search outside of this room?” He then asked.  
  


“I… Isn’t that dangerous?” Nao asked, looking nervous.  
  


“I wanna get back home… Can’t stand to jus’ sit still here.” Q-taro simply stated.  
  


“It’s not like we have any other choice anyways.” Kokichi drawled, looking at his fingernails.  
  


“L-Let’s move in groups!” Joe exclaimed.  
  


Keiji smiled at that. “So that no one does anything suspicious… Right?” He asked, looking over at the brown haired male, who didn’t say anything in response.  
  


Nao frowned a little, sniffling. “I’m scared… If there’s some other horrible device like the First Trial…”  
  


Reko glanced at the artist before speaking. “Me and Nao can look after Kanna. If you guys’re in danger, haul ass back here.”  
  


Kokichi looked around, contemplating who he should pair up with. He watched as Joe went over to Keiji and Q-taro picked up the box and paired up with Kai, leaving the not-cop and homemaker unavailable. He looked at Sou, who was staring at Sara. The leader smiled as he approached the job-hopper. “Heeey, Sou! Wanna work together?”  
  


Sou looked a little surprised to suddenly be approached by Kokichi. He smiled a little sheepishly. “Ah.. sure.” He replied, looking around at the others before glancing over at Sara again. “It seems like Miss Sara has nobody to pair up with… should we go work with her?”  
  


The leader resisted the urge to huff in annoyance, and instead just kept smiling. “Sure! Let’s go to her,” he decided to agree. He wanted to see if Sou actually hated Sara or not anyways. He then started walking towards the orange haired girl, hearing the job-hopper’s footsteps behind him. “Hey, Sara! Wanna work with us?” Sara looked a little caught off guard by them, and didn’t respond. “Y’know, if you don’t wanna work with us, that’s fine. We can just search on our own.”  
  


“Ah, it’s fine. Sure, I’ll work with you two.” Sara replied with a smile. After she did so, Keiji cleared his throat to grab everyone’s attention.  
  


“Alright, let’s get searching around. Don’t have any big spills, guys.” Keiji said with a smile.  “…And be sure to share any info you find.” He then added.  
  


Just like that, the investigation began. “Alright, where should we go?” Sou asked Kokichi and Sara. The leader looked around. There were a bunch of doors and three hallways. The purple haired male assumed that all the doors led to dead ends with mattresses.  
  


“Let’s go to that hall,” Kokichi said as he pointed at one of the hallways, then walked over to it before either Sou or Sara could protest. They followed him, of course, and they entered a hall with a green vending machine next to a door.   
  


“There’s a green vending machine here.” Sou pointed out, even though Sara and the leader have obviously seen it already. “Seems to sell drinks… but I’ve got no money.” He claimed truthfully, as the trio walked over to the vending machine.  
  


Kokichi read the prices on the drinks and raised an eyebrow. “Jeez, both water and soda cost about 1000 yen?”   
  


“Talk about price-gouging,” Sou muttered, before the three decided to move on and enter the next room, which seemed to be a bar. Gin and Mishima were inside already. “This seems like a bar. Seems to be a lot of alcohol present... But you guys are underage, so keep away.” He then said.  
  


“You’d better not drink at a time like this either, Sou.” Sara then replied.  
  


The job-hopper smiled a little. “On the other hand, some might say there’s no better time to drink.”  
  


The trio moved over to Gin and Mishima, and the teacher spotted them. “Ah, Miss Sara, Sou, Kokichi. Have you encountered any dangers? Please take utmost caution...”   
  


They then decided to move onto Gin. He was searching at a low-eye level. “Bars are just full of alcohol, meow. I hate alcohol, woof! And I hate my drunkard dad more, meow!” Gin stated after seeing the three.  
  


Kokichi tilted his head a little, keeping note of that. “Your dad’s an alcoholic?”  
  


“He’s an annoyance, woof!” Gin replied, looking a little angry after thinking about his father.  
  


“When you drink, you gotta be sure not to get swallowed up yourself.” Sou said. “I’m drinking age, too… I ought to be careful.” He then added, now speaking to himself.  
  


Kokichi looked over at the blackboard, seeing a list of names. He didn’t recognize most of them, and figured that the ones he didn’t recognize are people that died in the first trial. He saw how ‘Sou’ was written on there, and wondered if the job-hopper came here earlier and wrote that down himself. He also saw a name that seemed familiar. It was the name ‘Anzu’. He stared at it, trying to figure out why it was familiar, until he heard something move across the floor and Sara call out, “A sliding door!”  
  


The leader turned around, seeing Sara and Sou standing in front of the counter. He walked over to it. “Huh… Hey, Sou! Open it.” He demanded, looking at the teal-haired male.  
  


“Eh? Me…?” Sou seemed a little surprised, then looked over at the sliding door. “Sure, I’ll try, I guess…” He replied. He walked over to the sliding door and crouched down, then tried to open it. The job-hopper proceeded to struggle opening the door, and just… couldn’t. “Ugh, I’m too weak… I really doubt I can open this…” He said as he got up.  
  


“Pffft…” Kokichi resisted the urge to laugh, but didn’t even try to hide how amused he was. Sou looked embarrassed, and Sara was staring at the job-hopper a little awkwardly.  
  


“A-Anyways… It seems like there’s nothing else here, so let’s look somewhere else,” Sou said, refusing to make eye contact as he turned and left the bar.   
  


Kokichi and Sara glanced at each other before following Sou out of the bar and into the main room. They entered the next hallway, which had another vending machine, this one red, next to another door. At the back was a smoking area, and there was a sign that just read ‘GAME’.  
  


“There’s a red vending machine here.” Sou pointed out as they entered, and the purple haired male let out a scoff as they approached it. “Seems to sell cigarettes. In the back is a smoking area, I guess…? Don’t buy any if you’re underage, of course. Can’t go turning you guys into delinquents.”  
  


“Do you smoke, Sou?” Kokichi asked as he examined the vending machine, noticing there was something in the dispensing slot. He picked it up, and wasn’t surprised to see it was a cigar.   
  


“Ahaha, no… I never really liked the idea of smoking.” Sou replied, watching him pick up the cigar. “It’s got a high-class feel, huh?” He then commented as the leader pocketed it. Kokichi simply hummed in agreement as the three then moved onto the next room, which seemed to be a game room. “Is this… a game room?” The job-hopper asked. “…Pretty lonesome, considering.” He added after a moment, looking around.  
  


“Feels like there’d be some kind of puzzle or trick to this place.” Sara said as she approached the dartboard with the large hole in the floor around it. Kokichi and Sou followed her.  
  


“I’ll rely on your insight, Miss Sara…” The job-hopper said as they approached it.  
  


Sara crouched down near the edge, looking down the hole. A part of Kokichi wanted to push her down, just to see what would happen. “There’s a very deep hole here.”  
  


“Yeah, no shit.” Kokichi huffed, looking down at it. “Seems like there’s wind blowing, too.” He pointed out.  
  


“What’s the thing above the dartboard? It seems like the wind’s blowing from there,” Sou asked, then pointed out, looking up at it.  
  


The leader glanced up at the thing, then looked over at Sou. “…It’s… a vent.” He said dryly, as if it was obvious- because it was- staring blankly at the teal haired male. Clearly that made the job-hopper feel stupid. Kokichi sighed as he looked over at the dartboard. “Honestly, playing here would just feel lonely.”  
  


“Y...Yeah…” Sou agreed timidly, looking away.  
  


They moved on, looking at the two doors in the room. Sara tried to open the red door, but it was shut fast. “Huh… It’s locked.”  
  


“How curious…” Sou commented.  _ I could definitely unlock that if I had the chance,  _ Kokichi thought as they went over to the blue door, and that one opened easily. “Seems we can enter anytime.” The teal haired male said as they entered the room.  
  


Inside was a bunch of chairs, some of them having human-shaped figures on them.  _ Maybe dolls?  _ There was also a large painting of some guy wearing a hat. Some people were investigating the room already; Q-taro, Kai, Keiji and Joe. Q-taro was standing near the entrance, Kai and Keiji were investigating the chairs, and Joe was looking up at the painting.  
  


“Whoa, what are those?” Sou asked as they entered, obviously referring to what were probably dolls. “We should get closer and check them out…” He added.  
  


“Sure is a suspicious place, I tell you what.” Q-taro suddenly spoke up before they could approach and investigate the chairs.  
  


“What are you doing, Q-taro?” Sara asked, looking at the baseball player with a curious look.  
  


“Just gettin’ a big ol’ view of the room.” Q-taro replied, then looked over at the others. “But these guys… They’re checkin’ every corner, no hesitation… Ain’t they scared of traps?”  
  


The conversation just ended there, and the three moved on. Sara and Sou went over to Joe, and Kokichi went to check out one of the chairs, making sure to listen to whatever his partners were speaking about.  
  


“Wonder what this big painting is for?” He heard Joe ask Sara.  
  


“Finding it curious?” The orange haired female asked in response, sounding curious herself.  
  


“Yeah…”  
  


“Maybe try taking it off the wall.”   
  


“I think I’ll check the easy things first, like these chairs. Besides, Sara, it’s just barely out of your reach, huh?”  
  


“Hey, I grew a centimeter since last year. Don’t take me lightly!”  
  


“D…Don’t put me down, man.”  
  


“I’ll be calling you 'shorty' someday.”  
  


“Urgh…!”  
  


_ Yeah, nothing interesting about that conversation.  _ Kokichi thought as he tried to move one of the dolls. It didn’t budge though, so it obviously attached to the chair. He shook it, and heard a sloshing sound inside the head.  _ There’s a liquid inside? Why? _ He then looked in between the doll and chair.  
  


“Hey, Sara. Put out your hand.” Keiji spoke up, and Kokichi glanced over at the not-cop and highschooler. Sou was still with Sara, watching them as well.  
  


Sara looked a little confused. “Um?” She put out her hand, and Keiji handed her bullets. The leader managed to count three.  _ Why the hell did he give her bullets? _ “These are…”  
  


“No, they’re not mine. Found ‘em while checking the seats.” Keiji clarified.  
  


Sara was looking down at the bullets as she spoke. “I’ve… never seen these before. Are these real bullets?”  
  


“Probably. Dangerous stuff. So would you take ‘em?” The blonde male then questioned.  
  


Sara looked more confused by that. “Why me…?”   
  


“Joe’ll get antsy if I have ‘em. That said, I can’t give them to Joe either. So I’m counting on ya, Sara.” Keiji explained, and Kokichi nearly scoffed.  _ You could just keep them and stay quiet, but whatever.  
  
_

The purple haired male moved onto the next chair, this one empty. As he did, he heard Sou and Sara walk over to Kai. “It would appear this is a doll.” The homemaker stated.  
  


“Its placement here seems significant.” The orange haired female replied.  
  


“The head has a weighty feel. When I shake it, I hear this… sloshing sound.”  
  


“Is there liquid inside…?”  
  


“Perhaps the kidnapper’s aim is to have us stick a straw in here for hydration when we find ourselves thirsty.”  
  


“The head seems pretty solidly-built, though.”  
  


Kai went silent for a moment. “…Apologies. I was trying to tell a joke.”  
  


“At a time like this…?” Sara asked.  
  


“Truly sorry…” The homemaker apologized again.  
  


_ Nothing interesting about that conversation either, _ Kokichi thought as he continued to investigate the chairs. He saw Sou and Sara climb up the ladder out of the corner of his eye, so he moved away from the chair he was investigating and followed them up.  
  


The pair were looking at the chair with the doll attached to it. “Clearly the things in some of the chairs are dolls.” Kokichi said, surprising them.  _ Did they really not hear him follow them up here?  _ “They’re attached to the chairs for whatever reason.”  
  


“It feels like there’s something to this.” Sara replied. The leader thought that was obvious already but didn’t say anything about it.  
  


“Well, that’s good, anyway. I don’t know what I’d do if it suddenly attacked!” Sou said in response with a smile.  
  


Kokichi began to investigate the chair the doll was on. “A little disappointing, honestly. It would’ve been cool to watch the dolls come to life,” He claimed with a grin as Sara investigated the same chair. He then noticed the orange haired girl stick her hand between the doll and chair and pull out a gun.   
  


“...What are you going to do with that, Sara?” Sou suddenly spoke up and asked with a serious expression, clearly noticing the highschooler take out the gun. Sara was a little caught off guard by the job-hopper speaking up. He was quiet for a moment before chuckling. “Ahh, sorry, Miss Sara. Hey, would you give me that?”  
  


Sara was quiet.  _ Don’t you dare give him that gun. _ Kokichi thought, before he spoke up. “How about you give it to me instead?” He simply asked, tilting his head a little. He didn’t want to snatch it out of her hands and run, since that’d definitely make them distrust him.  
  


“...Sorry, I…” She started, a little hesitant. “...I’m keeping it.” The orange haired female stated as she pocketed the gun.  
  


Sou was silent, then chuckled again. “Ahaha, that’s right. You shouldn’t let it leave your sight. It doesn’t seem to have bullets… But definitely don’t give it to someone else.”  
  


“I understand…” Sara simply replied.  
  


The three were done investigating the blue room. They went back down the ladder and left, making their way back to the main room. Kokichi was thinking about how he should pickpocket Sara for at least the bullets, but Sou was keeping an eye on her.  _ That’s annoying.  
  
_

They went to the last hallway, which was a lot shorter than the other two hallways, which led into a cafeteria. There was an elegant chandelier, and on one of the tables was a dart and a lighter. There was a door leading to the kitchen, and a pitch black area at the back of the cafeteria. “This looks like… a cafeteria. I wonder if our kidnapper is telling us to eat up here?” Sou wondered out loud as he looked around.  
  


Kokichi walked over to the table and picked up the lighter, while Sara grabbed the dart. The lighter was expensive-looking. He pocketed it as he heard Sou comment something about how the dart was fancy, which wasn’t really important to the leader. He approached the kitchen door and tried to open it, but it was locked. He let out a small, annoyed huff as he looked through the glass. It was definitely a kitchen inside, but he couldn’t see the entire kitchen from just through the window.  _ I’ll hafta come back later and break in here.  
  
_

He then turned to look at his partners. “Kitchen door’s locked, so let’s go back there,” He demanded cheerfully, pointing at the back of the cafeteria, before proceeding to make his way to the pitch black hall at the back. He heard Sou and Sara follow him.  
  


The hall was obviously dark and seemed mostly empty, with a door at the end with a red lamp above it, eerily illuminating the door. “What an imposing atmosphere… That red lamp is eerie. Don’t think I have the courage to enter that door…” Sou claimed as they entered. They went over to the door, and Sara tried out the doorknob, seeing it was unlocked. “Whoa! It’s not locked… W-what should we do?… Are we going in?” The job-hopper then asked nervously.  
  


Kokichi let out a sigh, and before the orange haired female could respond, reached over and swung open the door himself. It revealed a pink room with a doll torso leaning against the back wall, a heart-shaped vent above it. There were little stuffed bunnies on the ground and shelves against the walls. “Oh, would you look at that. Seems like we found the body.” He drawled as he entered, looking around.  
  


“This is probably related to the head in the box,” Sara said as she and Sou entered behind Kokichi. “I wonder if the head can be combined with this torso…”  
  


“Will that make something happen?” Sou wondered out loud.  
  


Sara thought about it. “It might. Which is a little scary…”  
  


“Y-Yeah, right! Let’s search around some more first! A… Ahaha…” The teal haired male laughed nervously as they began looking around.  
  


Sara walked over to the stuffed animals, while Kokichi checked out the shelves. There didn’t seem to be anything on them, unfortunately. “Hey… Let me look at those.” Kokichi glanced over as Sou began speaking to the highschooler. “…Ahh. These are dummy bullets.”  
  


“Dummies?” Sara questioned, while the leader glanced at the exit. An idea came to mind.  
  


“They’re like toys. If you put these in a gun, they won’t fire.” Sou proceeded to explain as Kokichi quietly left the room, stepping into the dark hallway. He pressed himself against the wall with a grin, wanting to scare the two. As he did, he bumped into something that was about stomach-level.  
  


“So they’re not real bullets.” He heard Sara, but wasn’t really listening at this point, now distracted.  
  


Sou made a noise of agreement. “Yeah, they’re safe, at any rate.” Kokichi grabbed the thing he bumped into, feeling that it was a doorknob.  _ A hidden door?  _ “I know, let’s have Keiji look at these. He should have more expertise than us, so maybe he can tell us something.”  
  


“Good idea.” Sara simply replied as Kokichi opened the door and slipped into the room. “Huh…? Where’s Kokichi…?” She asked as he silently shut the door behind him.  
  


The leader pressed himself against the door as he looked around the hidden room, listening to his partners. It was mainly dark, with a lamp on a desk being the only light source in it. There was a laptop on the table as well. In the back, hidden in the darkness, was a bookshelf. “Did he leave without us…?” He heard Sou ask, their footsteps getting louder as they left the pink room.   
  


“We should definitely look for him,” Sara replied, their footsteps now getting distant.  
  


“Yeah, we should.” Sou agreed, his voice getting distant as well. “Hopefully he’s okay…”  
  


After that, it went quiet as the two left. Kokichi hesitated before approaching the desk with the laptop on it. He looked around, and didn’t see anything else on or around the desk, not even a charger. “What’s a laptop doing here…?” He muttered to himself as he felt the laptop. It wasn’t warm, meaning nobody used it in a little while.  
  


However, instead of investigating that first, he went to check out the bookshelf and anything in the darkness. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be anything worthwhile, so Kokichi went back over to the laptop, opened it, and turned it on.  
  


Eventually it booted up, and he let out a huff after seeing that it was password locked. “Of course this damn thing is password locked…” He sighed as he then glanced at the battery, seeing it was full. That was good to know.  
  


Kokichi chewed on his thumbnail, thinking of possible passwords. “Maybe names?” He wondered out loud as he typed in ‘Sou Hiyori’. Incorrect. He proceeded to type in both ‘Sou’ and ‘Hiyori’ but they didn’t work either. He hummed as he then typed in more names. He did Keiji’s, Kai’s, even his own, then Sara’s. He was surprised to see that ‘Chidouin’ worked and gained access to the laptop.  
  


“Does this laptop belong to her?” He asked himself as he looked at what was on the laptop. There was the trash can, and a few files. There were ‘Sara’s Tastes’, ‘BACKDOOR.SMUT’, ‘Order 8’, ‘Order 59’, and some emails. Kokichi checked out the emails first, starting with the oldest sent email.  
  


He read through them, thinking about the details. Clearly the owner of the laptop was part of whatever organization was behind the death game. All of the addresses the emails were sent to were different, seeming like random codes. However, from what Kokichi gathered, the owner of the laptop likely wasn’t Sara or Joe. The orange haired girl herself was mentioned, and a ‘friend’ was also mentioned, possibly Joe. The owner was probably the stalker, a person that referred to Sara as ‘Miss Sara’.  
  


He hummed, thinking about who called the highschooler that. As he did, the leader realized he actually read the emails from newest to oldest.  _ Whoops.  _ Kokichi moved onto the received emails next, reading through those as well. He made sure to read the oldest received emails first.  
  


The first email he read mentioned the owner of the laptop.  _ Kai. Not surprising.  _ Kokichi thought as he continued reading them.   
  


Afterwards, the purple haired male took a moment to think. Kai was the owner of the laptop, and very clearly Sara’s stalker. He seemed to be speaking to two different people, and was part of the organization behind this death game. It seemed like the homemaker betrayed the organization to protect Sara. Clearly he failed though, since the death game was obviously happening.  
  


But then his mind wandered as he was thinking. He remembered, in the last killing game, he saw the world in ruins. However, he hadn’t really been surprised when he first stumbled into the main room and saw a bunch of people, because he realized there was an audience, meaning the world was at least habitable. Kokichi wondered if the others were part of that audience. Specifically Kai. If they were, they didn’t seem to recognize the leader or anything… then again, the organization behind the last killing game could clearly erase and replace memories, so he wouldn’t be surprised if they were behind this death game and did that to the others.  _ Or to me.  _ He shuddered at that thought before moving on.  
  


Kokichi closed the emails and clicked on one of the files. ‘Order 8’ opened up. There was a note to Kai with a forged resume attached to it. He clicked his tongue after seeing the picture of the younger homemaker in it. He closed the file, and moved the cursor over to ‘Order 59’.  
  


As he opened up that file, he heard some footsteps outside the room and froze. “Hm… Maybe there’s a secret here…” The leader heard Sou from outside. Kokichi quickly closed the file and powered off the laptop, shutting it off as he heard the footsteps get closer. “Somewhere in the dark, maybe?... Ah!”  
  


The purple haired male could feel his heartbeat as he moved behind the bookshelf, into the darkness. He pressed himself against the wall as he heard the door open. “Seems like I was right!” Sou said, seemingly a little happy as he closed the door behind him and stepped further into the room. “And a laptop, huh… Wonder if this is where Kokichi disappeared to…” The job-hopper muttered as he walked to what Kokichi assumed was the desk.  
  


There was silence for a moment. “It’s still warm… Not even full battery. And of course it’s password locked.” Sou let out a small sigh. “No charger around either...”  
  


Kokichi heard Sou close the laptop, and his footsteps got louder. The leader felt his heart leap into his throat.  _ He knows.  _ The job-hopper was quiet as he walked around the room.  _ There’s no goddamn way he doesn’t know.  
  
_

Sou looked behind the bookshelf, into the dark, where Kokichi was. The leader pressed his lips together, making eye contact with the teal haired male. It was so dark that Sou couldn’t see Kokichi at first. The other male narrowed his eyes, before smiling a little. “Hey, Kokichi.”   
  


Kokichi let out a small sigh as he stepped out of the darkness, watching as Sou stepped away from him. He folded his hands behind his head with a smile. “Took you long enough to find me.”  
  


“So this is where you disappeared to, huh?” The job-hopper asked, grabbing at his scarf.  
  


The leader’s smile widened a little. “Obviously.”  
  


Sou glanced over at the laptop. “Did you figure out the laptop password?”  
  


Kokichi let out a small sigh, putting on a disappointed look. “Unfortunately, I didn’t. Just sat here trying out different passwords. Doubt you’ll be able to figure it out either.” He easily lied.  
  


“Ah… really?” The teal haired male looked like he didn’t really believe that. “Well… maybe I’ll type in something you haven’t thought about…” He then added.  
  


“Probably not. I tried a buncha things. Names, last names… both. Random dates, other things…” Kokichi trailed off, lying about the last part. “Well, anyways, what’re you doing here? Where’s Sara?”  
  


Sou’s expression dropped a little. “Ah… Miss Sara, she… she got trapped in the blue room with Joe, Q-taro, Keiji and Kai.” He said, telling the truth. “I was looking for something to use to try and get them out of there, but… I haven’t found anything.”   
  


“...You seem awfully calm when they could probably die.” Kokichi drawled in response.  
  


“W-Well… Nothing good comes out of panicking, right?” The job-hopper replied a little sheepishly. “Besides, I think those four will figure out a way out of there.”   
  


The leader smiled at the response. “Possibly! After all, Mr. Policeman seems pretty smart.” He stated. “We should check if they’ve figured a way out, actually…”  
  


“Actually…” Sou started. “I want to stay behind and try to figure out the password,” He stated.  _ How predictable.  
  
_

Kokichi continued to smile, even though he was slightly annoyed by that. “Sowwy, but I wanna leave, but I also don’t wanna leave you behind. I need to confirm to the others that I haven’t died or anything, too.”  
  


The teal haired male frowned a little. “Ah… so you don’t trust me. W-Well… I guess that’s understandable…” He murmured, glancing at the ground. He then looked back over at the smaller male. “I won’t do anything bad, alright? This laptop could contain useful information after all. But, if you still won’t leave me behind… then I guess I’ll just leave and come back later.”  
  


Sou wasn’t lying. Kokichi was quiet for a moment as he considered his options. Leaving the other male behind was probably a bad idea, but the teal haired male will return for the laptop anyways. Not only that, having Sou stay behind might lower the chances of someone, specifically Kai, come and steal the laptop. The leader eventually made up his mind after seeing that Sou seemed to be getting increasingly nervous with the longer he thought. “Alrighty, I’ll just go then! Tell me if you find anything interesting,” He demanded.  
  


Before Sou could muster up a response, Kokichi turned around and left the secret room, shutting the door behind him. He let out a small sigh as he went into the cafeteria. He was hoping he could break into the kitchen, but Mishima and Gin were in the cafeteria, still exploring together.  
  


“Meow, checkerboard guy! Where were you, woof?” Gin spoke up and asked after seeing Kokichi.  
  


“Oh, y’know… Just exploring.” Kokichi replied, intentionally being vague.  
  


“Exploring what, might I ask?” Mishima questioned, looking curious. “Gin and I had gone into the pink room, and yet you were not there. Where did you come from?”  
  


The leader simply smiled at the teacher. “I’ll probably tell you at another time! Just don’t worry about it for now, mmkay?” He then replied as he went to leave the cafeteria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some characters are probably OOC but,,, i tried my best. anyways next chapter will continue with the investigation, and Miley possibly might show up idk for sure yet
> 
> anyways more files on the laptop will pop up later. dont worry about the missing ones
> 
> also 'checkerboard guy' is the best nickname i could come up with for Gin to call Kokichi atm, if u have better ones feel free to comment them

**Author's Note:**

> if you have a better title idea, go ahead and tell me and i might use it and credit you. same with ideas. i have a ton but i'd love to hear yours if you have any and might use em (with credit ofc)
> 
> tell me if i made any mistakes pls thanks


End file.
